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[Spirit]

Originally Posted by BigAl

Class tonight was cancelled, but since the room was still open for the night I decided what the heck.

Alex,
Have you talked with Sensei Skip or his son Nick... Poeple to train with when this happens???
If you need contact info pm me.

[BigAl]

OSU Sensei -

I typically work out in my living room where I have access to a mirror on our closet door. It's not ideal but it works out pretty well. I will get some videos and send them to you, thank you!

I actually have a clothesline out in my backyard up on poles, so I was thinking of slipping a Thai pad or two over the pole and using that to kick and strike. The pads are nice and thick so it should work. I've been thinking of the tennis ball idea too, specifically to work on the spinning kick - roundhouse kick drill Kancho's been having me do a lot of. I've used Kancho's ankle weights for some things yet, but might need to look into getting a pair. OSU!

As for contact info, PM sent.

Today was a busy day but still managed to squeeze in a workout. Did some junbi undo to warm-up, then decided to focus on stepping techniques. Worked oi tsuki (chudan/jodan), gyaku tsuki (chudan/jodan), jun tsuki, and hiji uchi from traditional stances, then worked 5 different combinations from kumite dachi with footwork. Stretched out well afterwards. All told maybe 45-50 minutes of work.

[BigAl]

Monday I got in a quick kettlebell workout, mostly some clean and jerks. However, that night I got the crap car with the seat you can't adjust that leans back far, so I ended up getting a sore back all day Tuesday and yesterday. Today it felt a lot better after a few days of stretching it and some Hot Pink Lotion, so I hit up class with Shihan tonight.

We worked a lot on stationary kihon tonight from sanchin dachi, then did some compass drill work. Shihan liked a few of the combinations I've been practicing, so we ended up doing some of those (one of them was slide back into neko ashi dach with shuto mawashi uke, then osae uke and step forward into zenkutsu dachi with nukite chudan tsuki). We then worked the roundhouse block, not mawashi uke but the one where you turn around 180 degrees and perform the block with a Tensho cover (it's in Oyama's What Is Karate book, I forget the actual Japanese terminology). I then worked on my spinning kicks some more, and really saw why my spinning hook kicks were giving me trouble (I need to step forward more aggressively for the preparation, which will help me line up my kicking leg side with my opponent, and on the final portion of the kick my supporting foot should be pointing 45 degrees away from my opponent). We finished with combinations on the focus mitts and a little nunchaku work. The nunchaku is definitely not my weapon: cracked myself in the funny bone, the forehead, and the nipple of all places.

Overall, a good workout but not a killer. Just what I needed to loosen up and get a good sweat on.

[Dent]

Osu!

Who says you can't learn anything new...?

BigAl and Kyokushin in a post were expected. BigAl and Hot Pink Lotion?

Not so much.



Osu!

[BigAl]

Originally Posted by Dent

Osu!

Who says you can't learn anything new...?

BigAl and Kyokushin in a post were expected. BigAl and Hot Pink Lotion?

Not so much.



Osu!

Hahaha! It's actually a great thing for muscle soreness in general. It's marketed towards horses of all things, but I picked up using it from my strength sport days.

http://theharnessshoponline.com/inde...roducts_id=214

It's really strong and effective, and cheap which is nice.

[Dent]

Osu!



Ah! I think I've had something similar from one of my members. Blue goop. Good stuff that was!

Osu!

[BigAl]

Been busy but I got in a pretty nice workout tonight. Did my junbi undo routine and about 5 minutes of rope skipping to warm up, then did some lunging exercises from zenkutsu, kiba dachi, and neko ashi dachi in my living room, focusing on blocks. I then hit up the back deck and worked on some chair kicking for mae geri, yoko geri, mawashi geri, and ushiro geri. Did some kata, mostly Sanchin and Tensho, a little abwork, then got in a good stretch. Worked in some impact conditioning during the day and my pistols are progressing nicely, I think next week I can move to my bottom step.

[BigAl]

No class on Tuesday, got to sleep in a bit thanks to the wife then we spent the evening looking around for a new crib and ate out as a family.

Wednesday was pressed for time too, what with a lot of outside commitments. I tend to grab only a 4 hour nap after my shift on Tuesday so Wednesday I sleep at a regular time, but after court my wife and son napped right before I usually wake up so we were all up and moving by 5pm. Still got in a light workout, mostly just my junbi undo and some work on the Pinan kata.

[BigAl]

Yesterday I got a decent workout in. After my junbi undo I hopped right into a variety of lunging exercises, mostly te waza and geri waza. I then worked all the different goshin-jutsu combinations. Got some work with Sanchin and Tensho, and did several sets of pistols throughout the day.

[BigAl]

Kyokushin class tonight. After a good warm-up and some stretching, we hopped right into kicking. Mike and I worked yoko geri over a folding chair while Shihan held a kick shield for us to hit. Definitely an improvement in my yoko geri technique-wise, still need to work on that hip shift. We then did an interesting drill where one person is in the middle and two are in the front and back of him, then you work kicks, each time turning to face the person behind you.

We first worked on spinning back kicks, then spinning crescent kicks. We then did the inside crescent kick which was a big surprise for me. Despite not training it as much as I should, I have some good power with it. At one point I think Shihan's shoulder was bothering him from having to hold the pad for me. I tried these out using that arm pulley movement I've talked about before, which I think was a big contributing factor. Then Shihan had me teach Mike how to do that crazy spinning double crescent kick, and I worked it on a Thai pad while Shihan held it for me.

We then finished up with some kata (Yantsu and all five Pinans) and some impact conditioning. Man my conditioning has gone to pot. My torso's still pretty good but the legs and shins stink. Overall not bad. Right knee's bugging me a bit right now though, hoping it's just from being in a cramped vehicle for too long.

[BigAl]

Today was a kata focus, two repetitions of each kata that I know and then I chose one (Pinan Ichi) and performed several reps of each sequence of the kata. I then did some impact conditioning with my homemade maki-stick.

The daily stair assisted pistols have paid off too, I can now perform a full range body weight pistol with each leg for one not too shaky rep. I could do a few of these before but I always needed some kind of counterweight in my hands. Body weight is much harder in my opinion.

[BigAl]

Light one yesterday. Junbi undo and yoga, just felt really tight. Low energy all day due to a stressful week and less than average sleep time.

Today, however, was much better. After my junbi undo I hopped into a kettlebell workout (lots of swings and snatches, working timed rounds rather than rep ranges) and did some pull-ups, then got some good deep stretching in.

Tonight was class. I don't know what it was, whether it was the earlier workout, the big emphasis on stretching today, the dinner I had, the fact that I was well rested or what, but man BigAl was on it today. I surprised myself quite a bit tonight. Primarily a kumite emphasis tonight, working blocks and punches while stepping forwards and backwards in kumite dachi. We then partnered up and worked against the 1-2 combination, primarily responding with two sweeping down blocks as we drew back in our stance then launching a lead leg kick to the body or legs (worked both mae geri and gedan mawashi geri). We then worked on sweeping down the lead arm of your opponent's kumite dachi and combinations to attack their exposed areas. During these I felt really relaxed and rooted, as I was trying to get the same feeling in my kumite dachi that I feel whenever I practice an Ikken posture. Granted it didn't work most of the time, but every now and then I caught myself feeling pretty solid. For sweeping the lead arm, when we went to southpaw I actually caught myself using a Tensho cover on the lead arm for one rep, which helped draw it across easily and left my partner's liver wide open. I liked it so much I kept doing it, then Shihan saw it and tried it for himself and liked it.

Next was padwork, focusing on kicks. Shihan lined us up as before, with one guy in the middle and two others on the outside. Facing A while in kumite dachi, you had to execute a spinning back kick to their pad, then turn to face B while assuming kiba dachi, then stepping behind and executing yoko geri with the same leg that just did the ushiro geri. Both kicks felt strong, I rocked both guys holding the pads today which is fantastic as my yoko geri used to be absolutely laughable and my ushiro geri wasn't very accurate. Now I'm rocking both padholders with strong kicks; it felt good! We then did a similar drill, only this time you execute a rear leg mae geri, then turn to execute ushiro geri to the side. Again, for the most part my kicks felt strong and were rocking the padholders. We then worked a morote mae geri combination (rear leg mae geri, then kosaho footwork (switch) to perform a rear leg mae geri with the other leg) which was a nice combination, and finished with some work on gedan kakato geri (low heel kick), which my Shihan really liked. Overall, a good fun class and very motivating, as apparently I've been doing something right lately for all the surprises I had tonight.

[BigAl]

10 straight minutes of rope skipping the other night, plus lots of stretching. Had to be quick, not much time for anything else.

Today was about 20-30 minutes of solid stretching. Felt real listless today due to less sleep than usual, and didn't have much energy. This helped revive me somewhat and fight off some soreness.

[BigAl]

Good Kyokushin workout the other day, variety of different things got worked on. A fun drill we worked on was performing a chudan soto uke while moving inside to your opponent, then executing a side elbow strike into a pad over their solar plexus. Can't really recall too much else, been really busy lately what with preparing everything for the new baby, celebrating my son's 2nd birthday, and working long hours.

In good news, I finally acquired a good heavy bag courtesy of Craigslist. 100lb banana bag, canvas, made by Everlast. Practically brand new, got it for maybe 1/3 of the price. Was supposed to obtain a stand too from another guy but unfortunately it ended up being too tall. I'm going to keep looking until payday, then I may just score a wall mount.

[sandman]

Originally Posted by BigAl

In good news, I finally acquired a good heavy bag courtesy of Craigslist. 100lb banana bag, canvas, made by Everlast. Practically brand new, got it for maybe 1/3 of the price. Was supposed to obtain a stand too from another guy but unfortunately it ended up being too tall. I'm going to keep looking until payday, then I may just score a wall mount.

Sweet!

(this post was too short)

[BigAl]

Been sick since Sunday, hence why no real posting. Got a bad cold, one of the downsides of always being in contact with the public I guess. Hot and cold flashes, heavy chest congestion (I could barely carry a basket of laundry upstairs without having to rest on a chair), cough, and a deep soreness in all my joints. Had to take off work for two days but it's mostly gone now, just a bit of congestion left so going to brave going in tonight (I'm off tomorrow night too so that helps a bit). No training whatsoever, couldn't even try Tensho kata as the breathing was getting to me. We'll see how tomorrow goes, I'd like to at least do my junbi undo routine and stretch out.

[BigAl]

Decided to take it a bit slow but ended up having a decent workout. Did some Sanchin and Tensho earlier in the day as well as some work on assisted pistols, then after a 30 minute walk with my dog I warmed up and got into my workout. I did 5x5 combinations of the compass drill then cranked out about 50 seiken push-ups (with a few 20 count pauses added in). I then did 3x10 with both my homemade chishi and a pair of 10lb dumbbells I used as nigiri game. I finished up with some abwork and some deep stretching.

[BigAl]

Class tonight, just Shihan and I. After a good long warm-up, he then had me work on my splits and gave me some pointers for those. We then worked on some kumite defense drills (e.g. A will execute a two handed grab and knee strike, B will block the knee strike) which we did for hiza geri, mae geri, gedan mawashi geri, uchi mawashi geri, and soto mawashi geri.

We then broke out the kick mitt and worked chudan mawashi geri, jodan mawashi geri, ushiro geri from kiba dachi, yoko geri using taisabaki to attack at a 45 degree angle, and kin geri. We then used the focus mitts and worked on punches, mostly oi tsuki, gyaku tsuki, and kake tsuki. We finished with some work with shotei ago uchi (palm heel thrust to the chin) using a Thai pad as a target (we held it on sides with both hands and angled it so it was like hitting a chin). Good class.

[BigAl]

Two workouts today! My idea of a fun day. The first one was fairly brief, I just warmed up with my junbi undo then did about 20 minutes of alternating 2 minutes of various fighting combinations (60 sec left lead, 60 sec right lead) with various kettlebell swings for moderately high reps. Just did them as in shadowboxing, but once my bag is set up I'd like to work the bag in between sets of swings. Did a few sets of pull-ups (12 total), then cooled down with a nice deep stretch.

Then I went to class tonight. After a good warm-up we decided to work on some kobudo today for a bit. I worked out with the tonfa for a bit which I really liked, then proceeded to bang and ding the heck out of myself with the nunchaku. We put a focus mitt on one of the tonfa and were using that as a target for the nunchaku which was pretty fun. I then "taught" Shihan Tensho kata a few times. We then worked on several different kumite drills and some one step sparring where A attacks with a lead straight and B defends in various ways.

We then had a good talk after class and Shihan's going to start gearing me more towards knockdown style training. Good stuff. He's also become a fan of Kelly McCann so we may introduce some of his combatives concepts into our self defense training.

[BigAl]

Been a difficult time for training all week. Putting in lots of overtime and details to stock up a bit for the new baby, and we had the President in town the other day which was a big to-do. I never got to train since my last post, just some light stretching here and there and some Sanchin and Tensho sprinkled throughout.

Class was about 90 minutes, nothing too serious. We did a good warm-up and then worked all upper body today, working various fighting combinations both on the pads and with light contact to each other. Focused on the lead hand punch for a bit, then incorporated the rear hand punch, backfist roundhouse punch, ridgehand strikes, reverse knife hands, and various other ideas. Shihan cut his hand on the zipper on our Thai pad when working his ridgehand so we had to quit using those after we got some blood on it (hygiene purposes).

We then did our "What would you do?" drills, which were fun. Basically one person is the aggressor and can say or do whatever they want. The other person has to respond immediately to defend themselves. We did pretty good, each of us only froze maybe 1-2 times out of 20 for each. We each got each other a couple good times as we went by instinct more than thought and got a good technique in. For me, I got some good knees, uppercuts, palm strikes, and low kicks in as well as one good outside wristlock. Shihan had me by the gi and was pulling me into a punch, so I grabbed the hand holding stepped in and fortunately used control as he had no idea that was coming and it worked beautifully. Shihan got me good when I was "woofing" at him with my chest puffed up threatening him and he drilled me out of instinct dead in the sternum, which with my chest puffed out really hit hard and actually took my breath away. A few times we used the environment to our advantage too, hooking each other for knee strikes then "slamming" each other into the wall.

Overall, nothing crazy, but fun and a good way to shake off some cobwebs.